CHENNAI: It’s been a couple of weeks since the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) president K Govindaraj was named as the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia Zone president. While what kind of impact it has on Indian basketball in the long term is yet to be seen, Hagop Khajirian, the FIBA executive director for Asia is confident that better days are ahead for the sport in the country.
“Having a person from your country as the top man in Asian basketball is a huge motivating factor for all stakeholders to put their best together for the overall,” Khajirian told this daily.
“And from the other side, surely Govindaraj will ensure his experience as FIBA Asia president percolates down among all the stakeholders in India. With his experience of coming from such a diverse country like India, we are sure K Govidaraj’s inputs will be very valuable in handling the different cultures that support basketball in Asia.” Khajirian said that Indian basketball has been a glass that is far from full but the glass is steadily filling up.
“I do believe Indian basketball has seen some exciting action, long overdue, in the last few months. The INBL 3x3 saw huge participation and that was followed by what we believe is a good start for a structured 5x5 national league competition. We can finally say the giant has woken up from sleep. We are confident and hopeful the momentum will be maintained,” he said.
Like with every sport, basketball too has its challenges, but Khajirian feels that the sport is already in a place of prime prominence. For FIBA, the challenge is to retain it and to improve the width and increase the depth of its reach. The roadmap for that lies in the commitment they took over a decade ago.
“Way back in 2012, the FIBA Asia Congress made a commitment to have one Asian team on the podium in the Olympics 2020 onwards and in the FIBA Basketball World Cups 2022 onwards. We can say we achieved one part of that commitment with Japan winning the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics and China finishing runners-up in the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Australia. We need to maintain these results with consistency. We are yet to achieve these results in the men’s section, but we are heading that way,” he signed off.